74 NATURAL SCIENCE. "t^?"- 



to an earthquake of the following day. The address of the new Society is at Santiago, 

 Chili, and our fellow-naturalists in the Republic have our best wishes for success. 



W'e understand that a Committee, with I^r. Josua Lindahl as chairman, is 

 organising another International Geological Congress to meet in Chicago during the 

 Columbian Exhibition in 1893. 



The Proceedings of the Dorset Natural Histor\ and Antiquarian Field Club for 

 the session 1890-91 were published in January, forming vol. xii. of the series. In 

 addition to Mr. Mansel-Pleydell's presidential address, there are illustrated papers 

 on the stone implements, &c., in the Dorset County Museum, by H. J. Moule, M.A. ; 

 on new and rare spiders found in 1889-go, by Rev. O. Pickard-Cambridge, F.R.S. ; 

 on the occurrence of Tinea subtilella at Portland, by Nelson M. Richardson, B A. ; 

 and on ancient British urns, by Dr. Wake Smart. Notes on some of the rarer forms 

 oi Rubus lately found in Dorset, are contributed by Rev. R. P. Murray, MA. ; and 

 there is a new list of the land and freshwater moUusca, by C. O. P. Cambridge. A 

 short paper on the Portland Stone Quarries, by A. M. Wallis, gives much detailed 

 information. The volume concludes with a tabulated statement of meteorological 

 and phenological observations, by the hon. secretary, Morton G. Stuart, M.A. 



The members of the Dorset Field Club are regretting the retirement of their 

 president, Mr. J. C. Mansel-Pleydell, F.L.S., who is, unfortunately, prevented by ill- 

 health and advancing years from taking so active apart in scientific work as formerly. 

 Mr. Mansel-Pleydell has been a central figure among the naturalists of Dorsetshire 

 for the last 25 years, and has presided over the Field Club since its foundation in 1875. 



In his Presidential Address to the Entomological Society of London on 

 January 27, Mr. F. Du Cane Godman, F.R.S. , referred to the difficulty in obtaining 

 a sufficient number of specialists to deal with the enormously increasing lists of 

 genera and species of insects. The number of forms recognised by entomologists 

 is already apalling, and if satisfactory progress is to be made in the future, there 

 must be a further division of labour among the systematists. 



At its annual meeting on February 5, the Geologists' Association of London 

 adopted a new procedure in electing a lady. Miss C. A. Raisin, B.Sc, to the office 

 of vice-president. Miss Raisin, a well-known petrologist, had already been a 

 member of Council for three years. Professor J. F. Blake was re-elected 

 president, and delivered his first annual address. Choosing for his subject "The 

 Evolution and Classification of the Cephalopoda," Professor -Blake discussed the 

 changes that had taken place in thestudyofthisgroupof fossils during the last twenty- 

 five years, and pointed out the wide-reaching significance of these changes. The legiti- 

 mate outcome of the progress would be, the abolition of Linnean nomenclature in the 

 study of successive races of extinct organisms : they would be arranged, instead, in 

 "mutations" and "lineages." 



At the annual meeting of the Geological Society of London on February 19, 

 Mr. W. H. Hudleston, M.A., F.R.S., was elected president for the ensuing year. 



To all who are interested in the progress of Technical Education, we heartily 

 commend Professor Ayrton's Presidential Address to the Institute of Electrical 

 Engmeers, reported in Nature for February 4. Professor Ayrton gave an interesting 

 sketch of the growth of technical education in this country, showing how much has 

 been done, but how far we still are behind Germany and the United States. His 

 address contained, moreover, many valuable warnings as to the dangers ahead. We 

 wish that all those who are responsible for the future development and working of 

 the new institutes would take them to heart, as well as gain fresh stimulus from the 

 enthusiasm that animated the whole address. 



At a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy on February 8, Dr. J. K. Ingram was 

 elected to the Presidency, vacant by the death of the late Bishop of Down. 



